e e e e e e e e e e
e e e e e e evening we're going to start with our recognition are we introd make an introduction I'll turn it over no we'll
go first okay to superintendent Funk yep all right so we've got a couple principles in the year in the room tonight but we're going to have the most recent one come forward so come on who's the other one so uh you know
Rob was named principal of the year a number of months ago and he's such a busy so we made him come in on the summer so I'll read you the formal stuff and then we can ask Rob questions congratulate all we want but um Stillwater area high school
principal Rob Bach has been named the 2024 Minnesota high school principal of the year he was chosen by the Minnesota associ Association of Secondary School principles out of more than 12200 High School principles in the state um during his 10 years of Still Water B has
spearheaded several Progressive Progressive initiatives including gr reconfiguration the multi-million doll filling Pro 79th graders and 30 new staff to the high school he's also been instrumental in implementing bar which is building assets and reding risk which
is has contributed to the shift in adult mindsets staff focus on the strengths of studies and build off that to ensure they're meeting their full potential in academic and social emotional learning another highlight of box tenure is the pathways program bringing real world
experiences and interest based relevant classes for students look forward a year year and a he challeng what their school SCH looks like so I would formally like to congratulate you and thank you for your
service to the district and hope your service for many years yeah questions from the board anyone want to any comments from you before we open it up to the board I guess the only comment I would say um thank you for reading that gracious it's always nice to hear some of those things
but honestly I think this is 100% a reflection of the fact that sometimes you get to take credit for a lot of really great work that a lot of really great people do around you and um honestly when I I just look at kind of what our what our high school does and the the work that we're doing there are
just so many awesome people associated with the water area high school and sometimes you get to kind of stand up and take some of the for it and so this is just absolutely a reflection of that I'm really grateful for the people that I get to work with I'm grateful for the students that we have every day because they are awesome um and just it's a
reflection of the total package just I'm lucky to get recognized for something like that cool well thank you yes B um those are modest words um but leadership counts and I think uh most people who who have watched you in the years that
you've been at the high school um realized that this should be no surprise that you would get this sort of an honor you've done a really great job and we're grateful to have you in this District so thank you and congratulations yeah Dr kelber you know
as a principal of the high school you want 3,000 kids and all the staff um you get a lot to take care of but yet anytime you're talking to somebody you are talking to that person so anytime I've had conversations with you it's like I'm the only person there and even before I was is ever even thinking of
being on the board and I've mentioned this to you before you said something to me and I think that's a big reason why I'm on the board right now um and I could remind you of again sometime you just you I just made a comment to you you made a comment back to me and I thought aha that's right and uh so I I
appreciate that and so for better or worse I'm here now yes Annie congratulations thank you and um you know the truth is we're really proud of the work that you've done uh you and your team uh you're not only making Still Water proud you know
all of us that leaving in this District but also the kids um so winning this award with all the principles that we have in Minnesota you won this award that's something for our school and like my colleague here said it's true it's your leadership and the team that you have around you you know I really
support what you said uh because I've had I've had not direct interaction before I got on the board or before you even knew who I was uh you probably don't remember but I think I've had an interaction with you and it's true you did listen um I think you might have
sent your assistant principal to me and so I really appreciated that what you did in that situation I really appreci you probably don't remember and I'm not even going to bother to say it but you know you know it was it was it really speaks to the kind of leader that you are and I really want to use this
opportunities where very welld deserved but I think we the fact that you got this while we on the board board it's a big wi for us as well I think that's called reflective Glory we're all taking the glory but but
really big thank you to you because we're truly really proud and we say it out there you know we have the principal of the air it's a it's a huge glory for us and you know as board members uh congratulations and thank you wow I appreciate that um it was great having both of your kids come through and work
I remember working with PR way back when she was in nth grade looking at doing over the summer and um some of those conversations that we had so I appreciate that I'll also say this just kind of throw it without fun fact um one of the items on your agenda for
tonight's meeting is you're introducing our new assistant superintendent Dr U who is primarily to blame for the fact that I today she actually hired me probably one of her first official acts as
principal when she jumped and came over to southon I was a teacher in South Washington County at the time and there was whole an assistant principal position and I applied for that position and she uh she took me on she agreed to to take a risk on me um take a chance on
me and gave me my my shot in administration and that's kind of what got me started on the path and as Dr Funk said she is um a principal of the year was principal of the Year while I was there and so I had a a good Mentor to learn from and hopefully we've come
full circle because I I remember this Dr a when at my first meeting when I came to the board to get introduced to the board as this is the new principal at at Stillwater area high school the room was packed people were not happy we won't go
into what the were but but people were not happy and I remember standing up and actually similar to today actually I had a lanyard actually sticking out of my pocket but the lanyard was from the the school that I was at which was Woodbury High School and some guy in the back
somebody get that guy a new lanyard to my wife and I said what have I done uh here we are tonight and things are much more calm thanks to your leadership and uh you're going to be welcome a great assistance with cool
anyone else I just um did you want yeah just heartfelt congratulations to you and your team you know really appreciate all the work that you do and uh what fellow directors mentioned I mean that's holds true uh how well you just connect with students with staff and um I'm just excited for what you've accomplished but
what you know you're going to be able to continue to accomplish um with all the different tools that we hopefully we can help support you and I'm excited for what the next few years will look like so keep up the great work and thank you thank you and just very appreciative of all the support that the board is in you
know as Dr Trump listed off some of the things that uh masp highlighted things like the bar program things like the pathways program those things don't happen from the board so as you all know I've come here many times and kind of presented the case for things that um I
thought we needed and why I thought we needed them but it doesn't happen if the board isn't willing to to prioritize some of those same kinds of things so um it truly is a reflection of your leadership too just very very appreciative of our working relationship great well I don't have much more to add
other than what every everybody has said here but thank you so much for coming in on your summer evening and I know I always think of all of our principles having incredibly difficult job and they all rise to the challenge in different ways every single day but I always think poor Mr boach has like the most
difficult job because every school funnels up into the high school you you literally see every family in our district at some point and so I just want to thank you because you do it so masterfully and you lead with such enthusiasm and energy I mean I it's just
like Andrew said here I just I'm looking forward to recognizing you for what you've accomplished but looking forward to what you're going to do um with a relatively new administrative team here with Dr Funk with fa who will be introduced here and everyone else involved I just um really respect you and really appreciate you and everything
you do for our family and um for our families and our students so thank you for coming in on your summer night appreciate that but that's part of what makes the job fun too yeah there's definite advantages to being a one high school district that's that's a draw
andw it's a place to so we love having you so app thank you so uh Dr egg B why don't you come on up and just have a seat and we'll I was going to introduce you a little bit later but we'll just we'll just do it now yeah so I would like to introduce to
the board uh Dr fa bamu who is our new assistant superintendent and Fa in addition to being the 2011 I believe principal of the year um why don't you go ahead and give the board a little bit about your background uh prior to coming here to Still Water okay chair of the
board directors of the board and superintendent Funk is a pleasure to be here today and um I feel privileged um to be sitting here and I'm watching Rob back my God he's grown I just feel like
a mother and just seeing this young man his daughters used his daughter used to be so little now tells me she's in high school or in college I don't know makes me feel really old so anyway it's a pleasure to be here today and
um and I consider it an honor and a privilege to be sitting here and addressing all of you my name is a agbamu I'm originally from Nigeria West Africa and Nigeria was um a British colony until we gained independence in
1960 and so um I've been here for about three decades I've had the opportunity um I taught in New York City High School language arts and my husband felt we needed to to get out of the CD and come to somewhere quiet to raise our two sons
at that time and so we came here with two little boys and I started teaching in Sena public schools and um five years into that um enrolled with Hamlin University for a doctoral program and um
a PR I mean a doctoral program and um a superintendent license and a principal license and so um while I was there I had a little girl tajy um who is right now a doctor student in New York which
is it's pretty funny and so um five years into teaching I was called to be um an interim assistant principal at Highland Park Senior High School um I
went to Highland as an assistant principal and the following year a principal of the school I became the principal of Highland and was there for quite a while and I got kind of restless and decided to try something else which led me to I'm moving to South
Washington County Park High School where we did awesome work and um it's unbelievable Rob is an amazing amazing leader and I'm so fortunate to be here to be working with him today and so I was there four years into that St Paul
called and I went back to St Paul as an assistant superintendent I did my first six years was in charge of multilingual learning and then subsequently I was responsible for 19 schools initially was um 14 15 and then before I left it was
supposed to be 19 but um a very good colleague of mine just accepted the position as superintendent um with Rochester Public Schools and needed um a chief academic officer so I said yes and my husband
looked at me and said it's a long drive I said yeah I can do it he said good luck so I did that for a year and a half and finally uh February this year I knew I couldn't do it and so um told Kent I
was going to step way it's been too the journey has been too fastpaced I need time to really settle and um so he accepted reluctantly and um I saw this position applied and here I am today so
it's been a journey it's been a very interesting one one that I'm very very proud of yeah and how far how far is your commute now oh it's less than 10 minutes oh my God it's like a dream come
true like I said I drive to steal what I do my grocery I do every shopping I do from Oakdale and so I get to just drive 10 minutes to walk rather than wake up 4:30 in the morning okay I loved that job and I think that experience in
Rochester did prepare me a lot more for this yeah great well thank you are there any I mean we so happy that you could be here today and introduce yourself to the to the board and because we're televised a little bit to the Community as well and I know we're all really anxious and
looking forward to you um working with Dr Funk and the entire administrative team to to make some things happen for our students and famili so any um comments from the board yes Dr porb Benny thank you thank you chair Sherman welcome you know when I saw the
announcement initially I was I was over the moon and so to Dr F and your team thank you um for you know bringing in uh someone who has the qualifications that she has and and um having that opportunity to bring a different type of
voice um you know something that a lot of our kids definitely will benefit from because that's the world right now I always say it uh when our kids go out there it's not one size fits all their experience is multi you know it's a multicultural world out there including
the experiences so uh it's going to be a huge advantage to our children but one thing I want to say is first and foremost thank you for choosing to come to still water thank you for choosing to to be a part of the family here uh thank you for choosing to want to provide the
support not only to Dr fun but also to the team but to our kids to all of our children uh we know we've worked really hard even hiring Dr F care was one of the best things we've done I mean today is an accolate to the board you know it's one of the best things we've done bringing Dr fun too to Still Water uh
it's been one of our biggest Pride here and now uh you know when I found out that you were hired um I know there was also someone told me that um principal bar had worked with you uh so it was and now we have two people with principal of
the year uh here at still water it's a huge pride and now we have you here too uh but I really want to say thank you uh you come to the right place still water is a place for you still water is a place that will make that difference that touch that you're looking for you
will have it here uh because we are very uh we're a very proud District uh because we know what we have and you know you talk about driving you know waking up 4:30 in the morning to drive you probably won't be waking up 4:30 to drive but the excitement of wanting to come and absolutely you know work with
the team all of this great staff right here and our kids you probably wake up at 3:00 a.m. you know that's that's the truth uh so I really want to thank you because um I'm a very proud um you know parent in this
District but also a school board member you know we I mean sitting down here and just thinking of how far we've come four years including all the work all the work both academic and non-academic work uh within the last couple of years it's
been fantastic so we're not surprised that um principal back actually won principal of the year we can't be humble about it you know I'm sorry we can't we've been through a lot in this District so we can't can't be humble about it and that's something that for
me we will continue to talk about it's a huge Pride for us as a district we don't announce ourselves that much when East R and a couple of other schools are having all these accolades we are here uh but there been a lot of great things that have happened here and I think it's important for people to hear I don't see
the media here four years ago they were all over all over there you know wanting to talk to all of us um but now they should be here because great things have been happening within the last four years and so for that Dr Frank I want to say thank you to you and all of your
staff all of your team chair Sherman uh being a part of it uh thank you for that and we truly look forward to working with you like I said uh you came to the right place so thank you thank you yes welcome and thank you for
letting us know about your background um I for one I'm just thrilled that you're going to bring such breath of experience to the position that you're going to hold I mean the all the the experiences that you've had um and all these
different great school districts and that's um that's information that that you're going to bring to your position and and I am just I'm thrilled for one to see what you're going to do so thank you for coming here yes just welcome as well I mean uh
well said both my directors and you know Dr perny and just in terms of the excitement we have I I mean um couldn't be more thrilled and just excited for the work that we're going to do as a uh as a school district and and create further alignment and the work that
you'll do with Dr fun so um yeah like Dr P said thank you for choosing us and we're super excited to be able to be work with you and um the future you know is so bright in still water I mean it's a flagship school district and we got two principles a years we got a
superintendent of the year I mean it's only about great things that continue to build upon of all the great things we already have so did you yeah yeah I was gonna mention that superintendent of the Year too let's not leave him out
so so welcome I once we the first time we get that email about uh new hires I thought I want to meet this person so now I get to do that I'm very glad to do that so thank you for coming here thank you for choosing still water and I think you're coming at a good time for a couple reasons one we're really on the upswing you know there's there's some
history in still water it's been it's further and further in the past now we get to forget about that but we're really move moving up and you're coming in at that time but also you probably got the benefit of you're not going to be compared to your predecessor because this is a new position so I'm also anxious to see how how everything is is
structured here so you probably get to do some building as well of that position so thank you for choosing us and welcome aboard I'm going to jump M as well we're just going around the table now but I just wanted to say thank you for
coming in um and we're really excited to have you um and I'm really excited to see kind of how you are a compliment to Dr Funk I feel like you guys are gonna have different bring different things to the table and um hopefully make a really great partnership um between the two of you so thanks for coming and joining our
team we appreciate it and and I I mean I feel now I really but you know hearing everybody speak as you know obviously welcome I I mean it's
um that that interplay between you two I I think is great because it it is about moving forward right it's not just you know better you know it's actually where it feels like you you have that opportunity to actually help us maybe
achieve things we couldn't achieve on on our own uh you know as as things have been and so I really I I'm really hopeful so that's and if I may after I dropped the after I decided to apply I
called Marie I said Marie I've always liked um still water when Tom Nelson was as intering yeah because he was our superintendent in South wash so Marie you're there now what do you think Mary say superintendent is great so you
should apply I'm not sucking up Mar I'm just so yeah said is's a great superintendent I like working with him you know where you stand apply yeah so all right well we're very fortunate to have you the whole team is looking forward to your
contributions and um as we do move forward um you know let the board know how we can support your efforts I mean we're we're a team we're a partnership and so as much as we're glad that you chose us it's also our job to support the work that you two do together and so
we look forward to those ideas and those suggestions and the ask that you will have of us to support those efforts so thank you for everything you've done for students outside of our district and we're just so excited for what you're going to do now that you're here thank you very much and thank you for the privilege yes to be here and thank you
for coming in on a summer evening so [Applause] welcome and tonight we do not have any one signed up for public comments so we will call this meeting to order Joan roll call please director Haw here
director kenberg here director La here direct Petri here director corny here dander here sh shman here great let's stand for the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge Al to the flag of the United States of America and to the
Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all great now we'll move on to approval of tonight's agenda and I'll go ahead and make the motion to approve if I can get a second second great director cander
with the second all those in favor of approving tonight's agenda raise your hand and say I I I motion passes seven to nothing and we'll move on to our superintendent report so I was going to introduce Dr egg bamu
I already have um so I think uh that's the the most interesting thing but I also wna Caitlyn come on up here a second [Laughter] um it's summertime um so Caitlyn has uh
how long have you been in the district since um I'm approaching year seven so finishing my sixth year and she has progressively been getting more and more responsibility as time has gone on most recently she's been a director of a special education in addition to uh
being responsible for the 18 to 22y Old transitions program here in the in the uh U building and so one of the things that I get to do having been here for a little while um as you know that da luck has resigned and has gone back to Winona
where she's assuming a director role within the Winona School District um I get a chance to look at people who work here and really see what their talent level is and and their ability to to focus on things and Kaitlyn is a star on
our team and she has developed great reputation or great relationships and a solid reputation throughout the district and so um what we have done is we we're kind of realigning we're not um we're not replacing the director of schools
one for one Caitlyn is going to come in and focus um as a as an executive director on at the elementary level and one of the things that uh challenges we've had as a district as I observed over the last couple years is
implementation um we still are siloed we have maybe teaching and learning doing one thing and the buildings want to be doing something else and so one of the things that uh Caitlyn and Dr egg Bama who's going to be as as assistant superintendent she's also going to have
responsibility at the secondary level what what I'm hoping that they will do is help integrate what we are doing within teaching and learning into the buildings more more effectively so that we don't have a well principal wants to
do this um and teaching and learning wants to do this will'll have alignment on what the expectations are from the district so um and Caitlyn has a has a great mind for seeing the big picture and she also has the ability to
implement so um I'm really looking forward to her adjustment in this new role and uh I think she will get to Know Drama move very closely here over the next few months and uh so we're we're looking for great things from her so I
don't if you want any comments or anything I mean all all I can say is I'm grateful I love love this District I love working here um and to to be able to pursue this new opportunity and and frankly at at the core of being an educator is being a learner and so this
opportunity will do that for me it'll allow me to grow myself professionally and learn and I'm really excited about that and I'm grateful um to Dr Funk for the opportunity and for believing in me to be able to do this I um I look forward to working with Dr agbamu um and and hopefully
unofficially asking you to Mentor me a little so um yeah I'm just excited to learn we're excited to have you in this new you know expanded position so thank you for accepting the challenge I mean we continue to be I know that um Dr Funk
spent this is he's ending his second year and he made a point publicly of saying he spent a year kind of watching and I think we're starting to see some of that alignment and that realignment and some of that change starting and it's exciting as a board member to see what's going to happen as a result of
some of that change and um and that alignment of focus so we're excited and congratulations we're excited for you and we just love having you as a part of the district so it's it's a good thing thank you thank you and thanks for winging
great is that it yep okay um I have nothing to report this evening and so with that we'll move to the consent agenda is there a motion to approve tonight's consent agenda director lower with um the first and Dr porb Benny with second all those in favor of approving
tonight's consent agenda raise your hand and say I I opposed motion passes unanimously and now we're going to go under strategic Direction a ensure the learning process is adaptable to meet the individual our individual student
needs we're going to do an end of your recap and for that we're going to go to Dr Funk again okay well thank you so I don't think I've done this before here um in still water but I think it's a good time of year to do it to just really cover some of the highlights that
uh um both highlights as from a positive and some opportunities for improvement as as we look at the past and as we start to look look forward to the future here so go ahead Joan um so as you can see and you were all there uh we had almost almost all of us were there
sorry but he texted me from you know saying hey good luck yeah so uh we had almost 700 students which was one of the larger classes in in recent times uh um attend our 148th commencement exercise we had 50 students graduate from the alc
throughout the school year last year um eight of our students took part in a special education grad ceremony eight of our students attended the Native American student Alliance ceremony and then we had 26 students graduate from the AVID program so right now I'm just going to
kind of go through some things that that uh have transpired this past year and um we'll we'll just kind of uh go through there so the first thing is as you're all aware we had the bond in 20123 to replace Lake Elmo replace Anderson expand Oakland Middle School and improve
of Safety and Security at the high school I really want to formally thank um our entire Community for supporting the $175 million Bond I also want to acknowledge the lake Lake Elmo city council and the Bayport city council for
the support of our new schools we're also quite appreciative of the partnership you can go to the next slide we've developed with uh s cro United Church um we are actually doing the closing on the church tomorrow um so they'll come into the office tomorrow
and uh so we will U have 10 acres in in uh Baytown uh the other thing I can tell you is Bayport is annexing it within probably a month um so things are really moving forward there so we're on track for completion of these projects and the
addition um in the front model front entor way remodel the high school all this will be in the fall of 2026 and um all these improvements are going to positively impact our students for generations to come so you know one of the things I
talked about about year and a half ago is you know factors that uh impact student learning and uh one of the things that we talked about was some of our curriculum hadn't been replaced for for decades so this past year we've been
able to roll out a science curriculum in grades K through five um and our elementary teachers have been provided professional development on how to use this new new curriculum which has been a positive um literacy as you're going to
hear in a minute here is a focus of our district so far the district has had 73 of our teachers um trained in letters and that training is uh 80 hours outside of what they do um in working with students and we have a robust
professional development plan to get all of our teachers K3 trained on letters um in the next year as this is a requirement also it's it's what's best for kids but it's also a requirement from the state that we're eventually going to have to get there um our math
curriculum it's not uh listed as a priority for the district but we've really done some analysis on what's happening with math and we have some significant um misalignment occurring in grade five um we still have ways to go
one of the things we're going to have to do is and again this is all financially driven but we're going to be adopting a literacy curriculum here sometime in the future math is going to have to come in right after that um we really
um I we have to really do um better implementation of what we're doing with our fifth grade math um and that's I'll just kind of leave it at that um well really K K5 K I'll even say K8 MTH um so we this is something that's
that we're recognizing um and we we're putting plans in place but I think the the long-term fix is going to be a new curriculum um one of the things that I have discovered and you're probably very
well aware of it as a board is um how important systems are aligning to what we're doing to meet the needs of our student students and in this past school year you as a board um have approved a calendar that will start in
2526 that aligns with the natural breaks in the year um it'll the winter break first semester will be done by the winter break um it'll provide more instructional time before testing um so that is a a shift again we're one of the
we're one of the schools in Minnesota that starts before Labor Day already but we really didn't have necess necessarily a uh compelling why on what we started early I think now is more aligned um the other thing uh up here is start times we've had our Sleep Experts
that we've had come talk to the board about the um you know the fact that um our adolescents need to start school later in the day and uh we're we're making decisions that are based upon medical research and so your start times
are going to be shifting again the following school year here um to get families um prepared uh the other thing that goes along with that and we talked about this this morning is and I and I committed to the board that we would be doing this is an update on where we are
as Staffing for um our uh Adventure Club and so we will probably in August will be the first update on where things are at and that since you're sitting out there where are we at for summer Adventure Club Staffing we have accepted all our the families are current
families at some level some of them have a few days they still need have small waiting that's great so that that's an that'll be an important factor for us for our families so we're going to make sure we're staying on top of that high school schedule um you've uh heard a
presentation from the high school leadership team here um a month or so ago and they're looking at uh scheduled to expand opportunities you know one of the things that I you've heard me say this repeatedly the state continues to want to add more mandates
to our students and in a six period day that is just becoming more more challenging all the time for our kids to have any sort of elective if we're getting more mandates from the state so this will provide more flexibility um as we're moving forward the other thing I
want to say regarding systems alignment is um you know we want to build systems at the district level that are going to support what's happening in the buildings and um I have had a lot of opportunity to observe and take a look
at things over this past year and so what we are doing is we are um developing how we operate as a as a district office um that that can be more supportive and less siloed um to really
help meet the needs of our students now part of the systems alignment that we're talking about here and I think go to the next slide I think it's there not is priority based budgeting all right so what we're trying to do as a district is develop priorities and look at what's
important and if this is important okay we need to support that or or maybe something that uh um you know I think oftentimes in school systems I see it's the flavor of the month new initiatives come in let's throw money at this let's
throw money at that and and we don't necessarily have sustainable initiatives so I I think it's important that we we we have a framework that we're operating off of go to the next slide which is what brings us to this okay our Focus as a school district this past year and
it's our Focus moving forward are three real important areas you heard me talk about literacy um we've also got equity and inclusion as we are evolving as a school district and then social emotional learning and mental health and
so with literacy um the PD component of it is phase one which we are in the middle of right here with the letters training um but the second component of it which is probably a year out will be the adoption of some sort of new K5
literacy curriculum so that is something that uh um we're going to start taking a look at this year you know we don't want to overwhelm our teachers because Again part of being strategic about this is if we suddenly say okay we want you to get letters trained oh by the way here's a
new curriculum you need to learn this too um when we just had you learn science last year um so we're trying to be purposeful about how we we spread out um the different program implementation things that we're we're doing um so
that's the literacy piece go ahead so equity and inclusion um if you can see the people on the three people on the right side of this um slide this is one of the big success stories for the district this past year um we've been able to hire um family and engage
Community engagement specialists in some of our schools most primarily in the southern part of the district uh at this point and these individuals are working with our Latino and East African communities to assist our staff in meeting student needs we look to expand this program next year I think the
program has been very successful it's put a lot of stress on the three ladies who are doing it um we uh we're going to try to get it to to probably at least six people this next school year um and again we can fund this through achievement and integration dollars and
we're just relooking at how we we do the budget with that um but I think that uh if you were to speak to uh our Latino Community or um our East African Community they are very thankful that we've got got people that they can reach
out to um that uh we didn't necessarily have in place previously um the other piece of that I'd like to talk through is like like most of our school dis schools in Minnesota and the state as a whole um we're shift we're facing a shifting
shifting demographic um as we evolve as a community um so one of the things we've done as a district we've identified okay we have we have a need all right and so um we we've hired a Le
cultural liaison um Eric Anderson has done tremendous work in his role as our Ani coordinator um working with Community groups um I can't give him enough credit um but what we what I would equate it to
is we're doing things on a individual classroom type level at this point at a teacher level and what the district is in really need of is somebody at the district level who can
um provide supports throughout the district we had a trainer come in from Bright Works to work with the um Administration here for a number of months in uh this spring in the last meeting that we had it was it was
upstairs here um she talked about um okay talk to me about some of your initiatives so we had two or three schools that were doing different different things from a from a A diversity um educational
perspective but that was it we did not have any sort of okay here's the district level resources we're going to provide you here are the district level tools we are going to provide you um here's the district level expectations so we have kids graduating from the
school system that have totally different experiences based upon um you know what school they go to which is going to be some true to some degree but we don't have a like approach to anything regarding um Dei the other
thing that uh we're lacking is identity harm protocols all right so if if you may um be a different Identity or or a different race um than the majority and you are treated inappropriately um there should be a
protocol in place um for that within the school system number of us went to training on it a year and a half ago uh but yet we haven't had anybody at this at the district level be able to do that from a systems implementation um so this is a a real
Focus for us um Dr EG bamu will be really Hiring Our uh um our integration specialist at the uh um at the district level U probably one of her first things she's going to get to do in the next couple weeks here uh
so and just having her experience um from St Paul from Rochester from what she's seen in South wash and and New York City will be very beneficial I think for the district as we move forward but this is one of the top three areas of focus for us and and I really
want the community to know that uh uh we we've done good things at the micro level here in the district um what we need is a is a more macro level expectation District Qui so that's that's going to be the uh the change in
Focus there moving forward superintendent funk I just want to really quick because I think it's helpful for the community to know these priorities the literacy the social social emotional and the equity inclusion that was a part of the strategic planning process that you did
corre and it came from staff students community members that's really where these priorities came from did yeah we had focus groups we had surveys uh these all were from working with Teamworks and strategic planning um in the 24 23 24
school year and they uh um that's the result of what it is and so one of the things I have often seen um in another lifetime I was the director of plans for the Minnesota National Guard and so um one of the
things that and you've probably heard me say this before but people love to develop plans and then there's so many things and so many pieces to the plan that okay this is great this looks awesome great and I go put it down over here okay let's get back to what we're doing and so what I'm really trying to
help with is the focus of um all right literacy all right when when I sit up here and say 50% of our third graders are are reading at grade level all right that's not acceptable all right and certainly it's easy to say that's not acceptable all right okay superintendent
what are you doing as a district to fix it well literacy is our focus and here are some concrete things that we are doing um equity and inclusion we are changing demographic um we we need to make sure we're meeting the needs of our students um as as we change as a culture
as a society and and the other piece of this is our community is changing so how do we work with our community on change um you know we're the education uh system here um so those are some pieces
on the the uh the Dei side of things um and then the last one is social emotional learning um you heard Rob was up here tonight he is uh Rob and and step Gordy are renowned um for their
work with bar and we are as you are aware um financially constrained right now as a district so what we are doing is we are applying for Grants from the state to expand our bar participation
so we've added Stillwater Middle we've added Oakland Middle we've added Brookview in the past year as we get more and more money from the state we will continue to add um or if we do have money that comes available sometime in
the next couple years but we should if we're going to be a bar if we have a number of bar schools we should be a bar district and so um the challenge is doing that in in our um Current financial situation so I think that's
important I think the fact that uh um we have social workers um throughout the district where I came from our social workers were purely special ed here our social workers work with everybody and and so in a postco world I think that
that's a a really um important thing for us um to be uh cognizant of and that kind of sets us apart in another way um couple other things that uh for the future uh special ed programs um
when we're talking about uh priority based uh one of the small areas that we've added this this year is or for this upcoming school year is we are expanding Amigos unidos into seventh grade at Oakland Middle School so that's a uh a positive and we will our plan is
to to expand it until grade eight um which would happen uh in the following school year um so that's good the other thing that we start started this past year was The Hub system of transportation for Amigos Unos prior to that they had no
Transportation if a kid lived outside the boundary of Lake Elmo Elementary um they really couldn't get to school there unless their parents drove them so that's a a um change to that program gifted programming um you had a report
about a year and a half ago on the gate program at Stillwater Middle and the cluster program I think what you saw from the gate program at Stillwater Middle was some good support um there was not very much very good support for the gifted cluster program that we have
within our schools so one of the focuses for the district this next year will really be the development of a committee to look at how other districts are doing gate and GT and what we want to do we want to
develop a program that meets the needs of all of our our uh um GT students and uh you know they call it I think Talent Development these days but um I think we've got a lot of kids who um we should be able to meet students
where wherever they they're at on the learning Continuum so that's an opportunity for uh for improvement in the future um in a little bit here you're going to have uh um Marie come up and ask to approve the
the the budget for next year and one of the areas that we're looking at reduction and you're aware of it you've heard from a number of gate families is we are going to make sure that our transportation model for gate and for Au are the same and so they're they're
moving to a b a hub model the rationale behind this is we've been uh in my two years in the district the year coming prior to me coming here in this last year we were about a million and a half over budget in transportation each year
and and so part of that is the cost of a new carrier coming in um but one of the things we have to do is try and get that under under control you're also going to see some changes to the secondary um transportation primarily at the high
school level um and uh um so there'll be impacted families as there there as well communication on that um for for both the uh the gate hubs what that's going to look like and uh the high school students impacted by transport ation will be coming out uh here in a few
weeks um in July so people be well aware before school starts um the other thing that's coming up I don't if you have a next slide uh professional development so one of the things that that uh with the calendar that the board approved for this upcoming school year we're going from
three PD days to seven um I just have always found it really ironic that as a school system we pay such poor focus on developing ourselves you know we're we're we're okay give it to me okay good
I got to go back and teach my kids and so um I think it's important that uh uh we build some time throughout the year for PD um purposeful reflective this next year is not going to be so purposeful for some of or reflective for
some of our elementary folks because they're getting the letters training fire hose turned on them um but uh after next year I I think we will uh we'll have a better approach to it and part of that and again putting the the emphasis on professional
development is Step Gordy is not going to be uh like ELO principal anymore instead he's shifting over to uh because he's going to be the professional professional development lead for the district and very successful principal and he knows what's important as far as
um focusing on PD and and the other piece of that um again when we we talk talk about the budget here is we've had I think up to 13 maybe 14 coaches um qon pays for about six and a half of those
coaches I believe and so as part of our budget reductions we're not going to have a coach in every building anymore we are going to have a team of coaches that work with Stephen uh okay what are some core PD needs in a specific building or a specific area and we can
focus on the need as as it comes along again it's it's adjusting the system to take a centralized look at this as opposed to each principal having a different coach who but principles all have different interpretations of what their coaches should do um for for
meeting the needs of their teachers so so that's a uh um a shift um I think both those things or all those things are positive for the district as as we move forward here um looking ahead uh 2425 uh the
first thing I was in a meeting last week they talked about the cell phone policy change at the state level what I saw last week is and at our last policy committee meeting we looked at you know technology and some other I can't
remember what the msba model policy was looks like they're trying to going to try and incorporate that cell phone usage right into that policy so I think we'll we'll see what that looks like here in a in a uh in a few weeks so that's going to be something again I
think it's going to be purposeful to have a discussion with our community on what their thoughts are on cell phones and what's best for students here um so I think that that's uh going to be a significant difference um I've talked about PD uh
the next year I I just want to say I'm really looking forward to to year three starting here I think um we are seeing some significant stability finally um in the uh Finance side of the house I
think the HR side of the house is really stabilizing and so um I'm looking forward to some really um working with some great people Paul is doing a great job with special education and uh you know I know you you love him for policy
to hear him here in a little bit um but uh really I I think I'm looking forward to just as as Pete I think you said upward trajectory um I think that's what uh the feel I've got for the district and so um we're still tight financially but we're we got
plans in place and we're moving forward so that's kind of the year end recap of uh what I have subject any questions from the board great any questions or comments from the board yes Dr peni thank you H chair
Sherman uh Dr fun thank you very much this is uh you're going on start a fe three two years I've been here two years and I mean look at that you know um I remember let's start with literacy when I when you before you started and
when you started I mean you remember one of the big things we talked about with respect to Ted gr ability to read it was a big topic here on the board uh there was a lot of discussion about that um you know we talked about letters we talked about all sorts of things uh including our previous board members you
know there was a lot of passion uh with respect to that uh you came in and we always there was always a reason why that was happening year after year it was the same thing and so being intentional with respect to what the
solutions will look like is exactly why we have you here you and so that's number one number two um uh diversity and um and inclusion we talked about achievement Gap we talk about one of the biggest
issues we have have here in the district is the achievement gap for specifically black students and uh Hispanic students the last year and we're talking about um our principal from Lake Elmo we saw an improvement in the scores for Hispanic
students but we still have some challenges when it comes to our black students one of the uh responses then was that it was the curriculum and my concern then was the curriculum regardless of what it is makes no difference you can change the curriculum
from now till tomorrow it won't make any difference you still have the same problem something needed to be done and part of what you've done with the three women you show there that you have hired to intervene we talked about parental you know having that connection to the
parents because whether you like it or not we still have to have the parents involvement in the lives of our children that was one of the biggest things because there's also cultural issues there and having them as part of the solution was very intentional so thank you for that and and the third one uh
mental and emotional health uh it was a big one for us and the discussion about uh specifically a female students about if I'm not mistaken about 15% reported to have had some kind of uh mental health issues uh we've seen some you know some of our we've lost some of our
students here in the district some not directly related to that but some directly related to that that's a problem that was a problem and as a board we felt it was important for us to start looking at all of this and there we have it again the three most
important things that will create change we've been talking about this now for the last four years now we have some kind of intentional solution well planned out we know it's a start all of the start that
it's intentional it's focused and what I say there's a plan I am very optimistic in terms of what you what you've been what you've presented to us today and all of the achievements I have so much Faith especially with respect also to
all of our new schools this LEL has been there for over 120 120 years this is the first time and I want to say a big thank you to members of our community for seeing this for making this happen um if it wasn't for
them I don't think we sitting here would have been successful I don't think you would have been successful also your staff teachers but the community made it possible for us to be able to do what we do today so the bond even the levy they are the
reason why we can still do what we do why the teachers can still teach why the staff can still be here and do the work that they do so a big thank you to our community because they're a huge part of all of the successes that we see here today to all of our students our student
leaders within the last four years have also contributed tremendously to what we see here but you have topped it up so we want it's true you know and this is what we're talking about in terms of results right and so for that
I'd like to say thank you it is so intentional and it shows that you listen not only to the board but also to members of our community to the parents and also to to and also to our students you listen you and your staff listened
and that's exactly what we have here I am extremely optimistic the growth and we've seen an upswing too in the growth of students actually coming back new families coming into the district and it will continue to grow that is a positive here when you do
things that actually draws people in when I said we've been through a love within the last four years we're sitting down here smiling there's nobody out there to you know walk up here and say or do whatever right but our community um has a big role to play in all of this and we can't thank them enough so thank
you thank you yes director hacker thank you um thank you for this summary this was actually really helpful we've done a lot this year um I didn't count policies either yet Katie I know we'll we'll do that later um but I just appreciate kind of
seeing the big picture of how it's all coming together and how so much work is going into um aligning systems and making sure that we have um sustainable funding as well and taking a cleare eyed look at our current fin iial situation
and um not freaking out about it just kind of taking it in stride and moving us forward in the right direction but not overreacting I really appreciate that that takes a lot of um restraint and strong leadership in my opinion to agre
here helps so I I just W to um I say appreciate that um and I also appreciate that with all the changes that we're moving forward with we're not we're intentionally trying not to overwhelm our staff because this is a lot coming at people um and I know that there's a
lot already going on in the classrooms and a lot of changes and and needs for our students so um I really appreciate that um at least awareness of not overwhelming our staff um and I do have a question um you mentioned in the literacy piece that we have uh 73
teachers who are currently trained in letters but we still have more um to train you know roughly like is that half of them is that more than like how many more are we looking at to overwhelm with our letters great training but a lot it
of training 230 more 230 more yep oh wow okay got it so we're moving in the right so part of the challenge for next year for you know I mentioned Brookview Brook View is they're they're in really year one and a half implementation of bar so
they're balancing bar implementation with what's happening um so they're going to they may take a little bit different route um on how they're going to do the letters training because they're going to have different components they balancing okay 223 for next year 23
thank you thank you Chrissa Dr just flowing and thank you for that because it is nice to see sometimes you forget oh gosh we did that um we we did it like I did you did um they did it um but along the lines of
lers train because I was thinking about that too 73 teachers that have done it all 80 hours no is oh that's not um 56 completed volume okay and we continue volume next year so they're considered in that 223
for next year as well they'll have to so so eight so how many what did we say we were 73 yes so 17 are totally done yeah okay yep a lot of work it is that's a lot work and part of the legislation
has been okay we need to work with the SE on anou for a s and for a lot of the folks who've been doing it on their own any other questions or comments one thing that I wanted to say and I I think that the community family
and Community engagement specialist student foret the exact title but I'm glad to see that that's growing um that that you're looking to grow that in number because I've heard a lot of good success on it I've seen it a little bit just through my PTA and um lead on roles
um kind of getting involved but one thing I think that doesn't get talked about enough is how helpful those positions can be for our staff um because being culturally competent is not something that comes naturally to everyone and you know with all the other training that comes into play with
letter I mean think about all the you know the math and the letter you know the letters and the I mean the list goes on and on bar I mean what have it what have you so I just appreciate how those rle how those people can help our staff um better connect with our families as
well and I know that it's appreciated by our students and our um families but I think it's also really helpful for our staff and our principles and we need more of them because again I think they're just the the they're feeling overwhelmed yep and so I think that's
part of part of what we're taking a look at again if we're looking at systemically he what's important within the AI budget um and and how can we if if we're having some success here how can we shift some more resources in that direction um can you talk a little bit
because I know part of um the diversity and inclusion and we spoke about this during the strategic planning process um is bullying um that came up a lot in our student from our students in our survey and I know you talked a lot about how diversity and inclusion isn't necessarily just race um racial
protocols but it's also that inclusion part yeah the identity yeah and just is there is there anything that you can speak to that might going on in that well you know if you were to walk around our high school kids identify with themselves in different ways okay and
whether it's what name they like to be called how they dress Etc um and so you know in the old days people might pick on people and say well we're just joking okay or I'm picking on a student
of color well I was just joking all right what we're talking about when if if it's identity okay I'm picking on somebody because how they look how they um identify um that takes things to a
different level and so there are protocols that uh should be in place that okay no this isn't just kidding around this is serious and if this is serious here is what um you know here's
the protocol and how you should react to it as as a school system what we can do um and again I think probably fa's over here taking notes like you wouldn't believe as I'm talking um but uh at some point I think uh um in the near future
um I know that there's been an in at least an initial draft for for protocols that have been developed we could certainly at a at a work session come and share that with the board and so you have an idea of what that looks like yeah I I think that would be beneficial for you and in The Wider community and I
think that when I look at why I appreciate this presentation so much as you looking at a system of things that I think you they're all interrelated which is really cool to see but it's also overwhelming and I'm sure for the people sitting here it's it is overwhelming depending on the day but I look at bar
could help with bullying I look that the community the family and Community engagement Specialists can help in that area I mean I feel like there are things that are going on and even our last student reps did such an amazing job that I just want to acknowledge like Dr por Benny did in terms of the the music
that's played at the high school the flags in the cafeteria those things all make people feel included and um and a part of a collective and that's really what these schools are so I but I also think it's important to acknowledge we have a lot of work to do yeah you know I
I think that we we've had some pretty significant tension um within the particularly the high school this past uh fall excuse me past lay winter uh spring and so um I think one of the things that Don and Rob have done is
they've got a high school Advisory Group that now meets um I know there's a wider Community task force um that's getting together on around issues of diversity and they want to meet with u myself and
Dr EG bamu sometime later this summer and um so you know I I think one of the things that uh it's important to acknowledge is okay that all right yep there are some concerns there are some tensions here um and
acknowledge that that we have not always done things in the right manner but what are we doing to be purposeful about you know shifting that so that uh we don't continue to repeat uh um past behaviors so that's part of what we have to do as a school system is you know and again I
talk about not only within our within our with our kids but as a kid Community as a whole what can we do to um work with others we certainly do have a lot of invaluable Community Partners that I think we've done a good job this year
also highlighting what they the the amazing work they do within our schools for our students and families so um again thank you for this I'm excited at how this is all going to continue to come together because I think that um Annie again you said this is the beginning but there's a plan in place
now and so slowly we can kind of um make some progress here so great thank you all right we'll move on now to our next agenda item and I see Marie is already on her
way up for the approval the action item tonight is the preliminary budget for 2425 good evening chair Sherman members of the board superintendent Funk the community so this evening um before you
is the uh final approval of our fiscal year 25 uh preliminary budget and um again this is a um budget that again um
is started back in July of last year um creating this budget um beginning with um Levy input and so you know I just think about Mark coming up in a minute with the long-term facilities maintenance um process and that that
really kicks off a lot of what um this budget uh began about a year ago so it's it's quite the lengthy process to put together a budget but again it's what we did um was a lot different than um I
think what still water has seen in the past and um that is a a lot of the process around priority based budgeting and um being mindful um for aligning our
resources to the Strategic plan and the superintendent touched a lot on um a lot of the Strategic plan efforts and priorities uh that were not only um part of the planning uh for this year but
also for next year in uh those three areas that we will continue to focus on when driving our resources for next year um and again before you are some of those influencing factors you've seen them before I'm not going to again uh
hit on those but what we are doing right now in finance is uh looking at where we're Landing for the current year and um that is a key factor for where that fund balance will be and um again what I
will say about a budget it it's a Target um again we'll be coming with a revised budget again um to you sometime um mid year I will include um the react funding again that that's a piece we're waiting
for some more guidance um through the state but again it will include some changes it will also include some of our federal and Grant changes um in includes some of those other uh pieces as
well and and before you here is uh that framework for priority based budgeting what I'll just highlight there is that ensuring sustainability and I think the superintendent really hit that um in his presentation is is key not only to put
together a budget but what's behind the budget and those decisions we make but also the evaluation and and what are we doing what what's it doing for our students and if it's not working let's change it fix it and um look at what
those programs really are doing um what we're here for and uh that's our students in our community and so again just to highlight the overall general fund budget um what we have before you did not change um
from our prior presentation just again highlighting that change in the fund balance was for uh the use of operating capital for um some pieces of our projects and um it also includes that
wireless network as you see um at the bottom of the presentation and then uh for our general fund Revenue you'll see that that bottom line is um 149.5 million for our preliminary budget
again highlighting some of those differences or why the increase is there uh mainly the property taxes increased overall uh due to the tech Levy increase and the referendum and then our state
AIDS we had an increase due to the change uh with the legislature uh mainly with the uh per pupil uh that funding uh formula the for our basic Aid uh that was 1.3 million of the 1.8 you see there
in the state aid category and then uh with our federal uh Esser covid um going away we are utilizing some of our Federal grant uh title carryover so um
that basically is a net sum zero or a net wash and so that overall um change there is about 6.6 million did you have a just a quick one when does when does sser when when does it
end the end of September of this year so those we do plan on uh utilizing all our funds by the end of this month so we are closing it out with this fiscal year thank you and then again the expenditures here
um highlighting the $5.8 million uh in differences or that change overall all um again the I'll just say the theme for this year has been salary uh increases overall throughout
the all the programs uh there are some changes due to the property liability insurance um the tech Levy um increases um we had uh a tech Levy increase so we
invested more in the program expenditure but overall that that change has been mainly due to the salary and benefits um as you know we had some many contractual um settlements this
year I did have a quick question about that chart that we were just on if you can go back to that absolutely um and I was looking at going back to 2022 23 um in this lovely little book
you gave us um and under District Support Services you know it looked like there was an increase of about 25% over two years so I'm just kind of wondering and and everything else everything else in this particular chart seemed really
consistent within you know but that one was really an outlier so I'm just wondering if there's an explanation for that or what comes into that category with that it explain such an increase over two years the district Support
Services category includes that uh technology program so the program um 108 is part of the technology um Administration so um that supports the
overall um technology um the expenditures that are appropriate for the technology Levy so that that increase overall um could be associated with um some of the um Tech
staff or um some of the um additional technology investments in software licensure the levy came into effect in 22 21 so we approved it in 21 so then the money started becoming available in gradually you're going to see those so
that that would makes sense that the 2223 budget represented a a big investment in technology because we had that money to spend so okay all right that's that explains it thank you and so again this highlights just
the different categories with Sal salary and benefits and then our purchase services and supply materials and other just shows highlights it a different way again these numbers haven't changed since our last um presentation but again
you'll see that 3.5 million that that increase in um salary and then benefits um again with our benefit change um that wasn't as much so um again the the
majority is salary with some purchase service changes um overall and then um last but not least is again that revenue and expenditure summary um just so showing you that bottom line for
all the different funds um Food Service uh Community Service uh our construction again showing that we are utilizing some of our uh fund balance the for the bonds that were issued uh Debt Service again
uh that's the um basically the inflow outflow of uh paying off your bonds and then our custodial which is our scholarship activity and that's a a fund that's set aside for that so you will see that overall bottom line or
projected um expenditure budget of $29.9 million again um what you see for the net change and fund balance is planned um of 36 five million but again the overall
change with the general fund is due to the use of operating capital and so again this evening um the budget is before you for um final approval by the board and so that is the recommendation
this evening so um before we start our discussion I'll go ahead and make a motion to approve this budget can I get a second I'll second all right director theander with a second and I'll open it up to questions and discussion any questions yes um I was
curious in reflected in this budget so during the legislative session um there was um an effort um well actually it was the previous year um the special ed funding um and I'm just kind of wondering and I couldn't really find it
anywhere in the in the in this report court but what happened with our crust subsidy as a result of what happened with the legislature our special ased cross subsidy yes so the cross subsidy
is um part of the state AIDS so that the state AIDS and credits does include um a cross subsidy amount it was included in last year's um increase of Revenue um up
to it was 44% for the cross subsidy it does not increase for a couple more years again as part of the legislation I think it goes up to I want to say
50% um based on the uh formula so we did have an increase um but it was in last year's um and then we do get a little bit more as our expenditures go up but um that it was part of last year's
revenue and do we know how much that moved the needle like dud I mean that's probably unfair to ask you to pull those percentages out of your head but I was just I want to say it was about four four to five million okay I can I can
give you that exact number I can do some and our cross subsidy was that like around 11 million it was 12 something 12 12 12.9 127 all right okay all right thank you and the same thing with the um e cross
subsidy well the ml cross subsidy now um so we saw an increase last year we're going to see in a is it two years out I think it might be years out we'll see a larger and they're doing something new um where we'll we can we be reimbursed
25 cents um for any additional um El that's not funded um with other Revenue sources okay so it'll be strategic yes Bri thank you to you and your team
it's a lot of work Jena fire holes for last what eight nine 10 months since this process started so U so thank you um I think you know as you kind of look at this budget and how much time and effort that goes into it and involves so many you know
tough choices and difficult decisions that unfortunately sometimes impacts families and impacts teachers um you know and so um but going back to Dr funk's uh year in review which uh his recap was excellent I mean it just shows
that you know there is a plan and it's prudent it's responsible you know Mar kind of your words you know mindful of all these different uh impacts and stakeholders and I just feel um confident with what we have in place and
um knowing that we can adjust and there's you know this a booklet so well you know put together you know just there's so many uncontrollable variables and those those projections we have to do and I guess you know for me I guess you know looking at some of the revenues 56% comes from the state I mean that's
obviously always there's some risk to that and I guess anything that kind of keeps you up at night from a budget standpoint that you know we can try to mitigate it as a board are just just factors that are just outside of our control other than contined advocacy which you know Dr Funk your team have
done a really great job at a state level so any thoughts I think it's just it's the unknowns that we don't know from the state level and and those those mandates
I I also want to just acknowledge this you know Marie has come up with unknown at the state level well we've also discovered some significant financial things that were not known in the past
you know 18 months or so since she's been here and so I think those worries that we heard I heard of another small one today um those worries are becoming less and less the longer we have stability in place within uh the finance
and HR worlds um so that's what that's what would you know that was okay we didn't expect to see okay that we didn't we have this hole or this hole that we knew nothing about um now I
think it's getting back into steady state okay is the state going to give us enough money um and and as you stated you know working with the legislature to educate them on on our needs keep up the good work I mean I
have a lot of confidence in what's happening and Division and Leadership backun that you have and your team in place so um yeah keep up the great work and done Mar thank you Dr Petri So yeah thank you for that
I appreciate that um and you know and I I also know that there have been so many unexpected little things that have come up as you've tried to tackle our finances um and I'm really grateful to hear that you feel as though you're kind
of getting a handle on it and all those prizes or hopefully in the past and I'm just wondering if then you've been able to turn your attention to any sort of a an approach to try to get us into a
little bit better Financial condition when it comes to the I mean have you thought more about that philosophy or what that approach is going to be or how we're going to get our up to that 5% unassigned yeah balance I think a couple pieces to that
um I think one of the interesting tensions that we had this year um when we're negotiating contracts and I haven't done that for a number of years so that was
another thing I had to do this year um was the fact that all right we are in this precarious position um and we have a this you know we talk about this $4 million shortfall that we had to have to dig ourselves out of um I I think we've been pretty
successful in getting us um dug out of that and we are at you know we're able to do that and we're still at 1% so I think moving forward um we stay focused on the priority based budgeting um I
think that will help us out quite a bit um I think our enrollment is definitely starting to Trend in the right direction which will help us out quite a bit as well um so I don't you know I I don't know
enough what what behind the curtain in finance um but we've got somebody here who's exceptionally experienced and knowledgeable and um you know I mean we've been able to navigate um these
huge contract increases that the state is seeing and yet we're still able to come in front of you and say okay we we're we're overcoming this whole that uh that we were inherited whatever you want whatever you want to call it that
we identified and um maintain positive contracts for people and uh and still maintain the razor ed fund balance that were on and you know I asked her politely at the last meeting a couple weeks ago all right you know is this
rock bottom as far as this fund balance and Marie's as conservative as they come and you know her response was you know I'm hopeful that when when the audit comes in we'll see something a little bit more positive um so um I I can
sit today and having looked at the the budget and seeing the the downward trajectory in in the uh um fund balances um I am quite hopeful and hope is not a method um but with the systems we're
putting in place that we are going to see um movement in the other direction um um so it's but is this has been a a balancing act particularly this year when you know the state says we're giving you all this money and there's
Tales to this money and then um people are expecting okay huge raises everywhere how how we're able to manage that um so I I think I'm I'm very confident in uh in Marie and her leadership moving forward that uh um we
are going to see an upward trajectory um towards that F balance and I think if you look at our experience um you know number of years in in senior rules that's been our that's been our background both of ours so and I'll just
add to the superintendent I think it's also a big piece of it is sticking to the budget you put together so if there's it and being transparent about it so having a
budget having that plan yes things change but there's there's a big key thing to things come to you with um plans and um if it's not in the budget you need to
know the why the reasons behind and if there's other orders I get an email from not planned um we need to know how to fund those so um and they're all laughing because they know I'm I'm sticking we're we're in a tight
situation so I'm the bad guy here but so this afternoon she emails me hey what about these positions for this yes I'm and so my response to her was are they in the budget yes they were okay but if they
were not in the budget okay we need to stop back and say all right time out here um I don't think that's necessarily the way a lot of places necessarily operate we'll figure it out um
so yeah and she has no problem saying no well I appreciate I have appreciated as a board member coming into the Strategic the priority based budgeting process and how it's tied to the Strategic plan it makes the recommendations it puts it in a
framework for the board I think because you know you could look at a book like this and it's just your eyes can cross at the kind of detail but when you start talking about okay these are our District priorities this is where we are in the budget these are the hard decisions we have to make and um I know
everyone at this table had a hard time deciding that we needed to cut back in transportation um but I think because of the priority based budgeting process it really made the decision-making process pretty evident as a board member and as
someone who's looking at the whole system um where our priorities need to be and so I just really appreciate the process that you've led us through this first year and I think that this is just again like everything else that's starting this is the first year and I think it's going to continue and we're
going to get more comfortable in that process and um I think that the community wants to see us live within our means and I think that we're on our way to even though families make difficult decisions every day in their
own personal budgets and so we're no different than that and I appreciate your approach that mirrors that I think for the community and I just want to recognize that your team they put in a tremendous amount of work um back in your area and so um it's just been
really I can't thank you enough for how well organized and presented and the process that's laid out and we know dates when we can expect everything and we know when things are coming and it's just been a breath of fresh air for the board um even though the the where we are isn't where we want to be it's again
building that process that ground floor so that we can build up from there so thank you for that all right any other questions okay we have a motion in a second all those in favor of approving the preliminary budget for 2425 raise your hand and say
I I I opposed motion passes thank you again and thanks to your team thank you now we're moving on to our long-term facility plan the 10-year plan action item and welcome Merk
good evening chair serman members of the board um tonight we're looking for approval for the 10-year um long-term facility maintenance plan last meeting we looked at our 10-year plan and kind of looking at the big buckets of what the 10year plan looks like but more specifically we're looking at fiscal
year 2026 2026 and the summary projects that were um identified with each one of our buildings so as we look at um approving the 10-year plan it's the summary projects for um next year so the fy20 is actually next year's construction project so the 2025 in the
10-year plan there's the um application for expenditure it's the revenue projection it's the statement assurances and then there's a resolution um at the end so just as a recap as always as we go into this process and kind of planning what our projects are going to
be we really try to balance um minimizing the the tax burden our community and also keeping our buildings from eroding and keep them looking nice and fresh each and every year so um we really take that to heart of these our taxpayer dollars but we also want to maintain our facilities so we can keep
them up to date from year to year so the project list that was in front of you last time that you'll be approving here is the um 10,784 370 so with that I will open it up to questions or comments that any of you may have from last meeting or today okay
so before we start that discussion let's go ahead and make if I can get a motion to approve okay director lower in a second Second Great director kelzenberg and open for questions and discussion is it in the budget yes trust me we sit I sit with Marie a long hours
and we go over this yes this is in the budget be Marie great okay um seeing there are no questions this is a resolution so we're going to go um and have Joan do the roll call on us director hacker yes director kenberg yes director low yes direct
Petri yes corny yes thander yes chair Sherman yes resolution passes un great thank you very much all right we're moving on to our next action item and I believe Chris is going to
come up and join us for the board approval on the director's terms and conditions good evening directors Che shman Dr um so we um did some discussions and
talked about options for the director's terms and conditions um and so in working with uh Dr Funk we landed on um the changes that are on the slide so um we went with um two% in year one with the full retro um steps
included um four four and a half in year two um with steps included in that one um medical insurance is the same as all the other groups um and then we went with 403b uh we increased from three and a half to four
with a cap of $6,500 uh we also increased the healthc care Savings Plan um by $500 and then that last one we expanded the annual professional um stipend um of $1,000 do to include superintendent
license and other certifications um want to go the why on that yeah so that one was originally um established in a previous um terms and conditions and it was for it was to recognize those with a PhD um we don't
have a ton of folks with a PhD um but we do have others with um superintendent license and other certifications and really the point of those additional certifications is to advance our professional development and help us be um better at our jobs um so this is just
um um an incentive an opportunity to recognize those efforts um and it also we expanded it in order to help on the operation side because I don't know about any of you but I'm probably not going to get a superintendent's license anytime soon um so um that helps to um
include um other members of the group do you questions and are you we determining what those professional certifications are is that a process that you'll undergo yeah Marie and I will probably put our heads together um we've already kind of talked about um some on the accounting side um there's a
communication certification there's certainly HR ones so we'll kind of you know get together and get a list together so that we know what you know exactly what we're looking for great and that's a one time yep well it's an annual annual is one so even if you have five different certifications you still
only get one stip in okay got it any any other questions I was straightforward it's pretty good can I just make just make a comment um I really appreciate that you guys are expanding it beyond
that PhD I remember the discussions um in the contracts when that was added um and as a board I know that we really wanted to support educ or um expanding the education of our Educators and um as just a learning institution so I really appreciate that this is being expanded
further and that there's an additional incentive um to doing that work because so much of those extra costs fall back on the educator to expand them for themselves so um it's just a nice little piece to to say thank you and hopefully encourage people to get that extra
education on their own dime yeah and a lot of the certifications require ongoing um cus and fees to maintain so it's a nice um it's a nice boost and keeping that expertise and encouraging that expertise to be within our district is I think very in line with what we're
doing with our strategic plan and the expect more and um I I really also appreciated that piece too great um this is not a resolution so we if there's no questions we can have a motion entertain a motion to approve
move to approve great the second second great director Petri the second all those in favor of approving raise your hand and say I I opposed motion passes thank you Chris I appreciate it all right our next item is a resolution for membership in the
Minnesota State High School league is that you yeah I guess that's me so we it's an annual requirement uh they they request that you watch a video I believe Joe sent the video to the board um so I
think we want to stay in the State High School league so I recommend I don't think there's anything controversial in this okay great um is there a motion on this so moved great motion to approve is there a second Dr forb Benny with the the second all those in favor of
approving the resolution resolution oh this is a resolution oh I'm sorry so now there are no questions I'm assuming let's do the roll call director hucker yes director Kellenberg yes director lower yes director Petri yes director corny yeser yes shman yes resolution
passes great passed unanimously and so we'll move on to um resolution another resolution relating to the El election of Schoolboard members and call the school district general election so um this is a resolution just
we obviously we have three openings um on the school board this November and so this is kind of dotting our eyes crossing our tees getting everything set up for November's election um is is there a motion to to
approve this great director kenberg I'll second any questions on this or discussion right this is also a roll call vote since it is a resolution Joan director Hawker yes director kelzenberg yes director laow yes director Petri yes
director fori yes director thander yes chair Sherman yes resolution passes you right thank you and then now we're on to policy we have a few policies that are up for second reading and that we welcome Paul and I'll turn it over to you great
good evening board members and uh chair Sherman uh this evening we have five policies uh for a second reading these are policies that at our last board meeting we went through the first reading um discuss those I'll just kind of walk through them uh quickly um see
if there's any additional comment uh the first policy is 502 search of student lockers desks personal possessions and students person this is a mandatory uh policy it's revised um for for your consideration
the second policy is [Music] 507.00 this is a mandatory policy that we have on the books it's revised um and we uh reviewed the the kind of minor revisions of the policy at our last
meeting um our fourth policy is uh 530 it's immunization requirements this is actually a new policy for us in the district and contains legal requirements uh for us and the final uh second reading is
policy 535 service animals in schools and uh this is a new policy for the district so we present those I have not received any comments further comments since since the first reading regarding
uh the five policies great um I will go ahead and make a motion to approve these policies can I get a second great oh okay director kelzenberg I didn't see um okay so we have a motion
uh in a second is there are there any questions on this great all those in favor of approving policies 502 507.00 535 raise your hand and say I I opposed policies passed thank you very much
thank you and that is it for this evening with that we're adjourned thank you so abup end e e